Walt Disney Pictures has set Christmas Day 2011 for the release of the new Muppet movie, reports VARIETY. This will put its debut date on a Sunday. FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS co-creator James Bobin is the director. Jason Segel will star and co-wrote the screenplay with his FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL director Nicholas Stoller. Mandeville's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are producing.

The Muppets will have to compete with Steven Spielberg's ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: SECRET OF THE UNICORN and Cameron Crowe's WE BOUGHT A ZOO.